Blockbuster Art Exhibitions

▪ 1997

by Sandra Millikin

      Blockbuster, a highly explosive word not usually associated with art, has now entered the lexicon as a term applied to art exhibitions. By 1996 so-called blockbuster exhibitions—big, popular, moneymaking showcases that delivered a powerful impact—had become important sources of direct and indirect revenue, visibility, and prestige for museums worldwide.

      After publicly funded museums suffered financial cutbacks in the 1980s and '90s, they were compelled to seek alternative sources of revenue. Sales from museum shops, revenue from entry fees, grants from commercial sponsors, and, especially, exhibitions became increasingly important. The more popular and "blockbusting" an exhibition, the more revenue it might generate. Sponsors preferred shows that attracted wide interest, and the largest blockbusters were notable for attendant (and often sponsor-funded) publicity. Books and catalogs linked to an exhibition could also help increase public awareness.

      Because of the insurance and transportation costs incurred when substantial numbers of extremely valuable items were borrowed from sources throughout the world, blockbusters were expensive to mount. The most popular shows might justify the resulting high admission fees, and sales from linked memorabilia (particularly when exclusivity was offered) could also help defray some of the cost.

      Historically, the "Treasures of Tutankhamen" was the granddaddy of all blockbusters. When the enormously popular exhibit opened in London in 1972, huge lines formed outside the British Museum. Though the show was scheduled to run from April until September, popular interest prompted museum officials to extend its stay until December. When the exhibit traveled to the U.S. in 1976, endless lines formed at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, the New Orleans (La.) Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Seattle (Wash.) Art Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

      The staging of blockbuster exhibitions, however, was not limited to major museums in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington. City-sponsored blockbuster art exhibits were mounted in Memphis, Tenn., and St. Petersburg, Fla., which held their shows in a convention centre and an old department store, respectively. During a 10-year period of presenting exhibits, Wonders: The Memphis International Cultural Series showcased such events as "Ramesses the Great" (1987; 675,000 attendance), "Catherine the Great: Treasures of Imperial Russia" (1991; 605,000), "The Etruscans: Legacy of a Lost Civilization" (1992; 119,771), "Splendors of the Ottoman Sultans" (1992; 212,089), and "Napoleon" (1993; 416,722). In 1996 "Treasures of the Czars" attracted 600,000 visitors in St. Petersburg.

      By 1996 blockbuster shows were mainstream cultural events by no means limited in appeal to art cognoscenti. That the 1996 Olympic Games organizers in Atlanta, Ga., saw fit to include an Olympic Arts Festival, featuring such an ambitious show as "Rings: Five Passions in World Art," was testimony to the manner in which art exhibitions had taken centre stage in the entertainment world. The concept of art sharing time and space with sporting events might have seemed unthinkable 20 years earlier.

      During 1995-96 there were several notable blockbusters, many of them devoted to the 19th century, particularly the Impressionists and Postimpressionists. The public gravitated to these shows with often well-known and usually stunningly beautiful objects; some 965,000 attended the massive 1995 Claude Monet retrospective at the Art Institute of Chicago. It was surprising, therefore, that in 1996 one of the best-attended and most sought-after shows was devoted to the 17th-century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, whose extant pictures of domestic interiors numbered only about 35. The exhibit of 22 of his paintings was the first ever devoted solely to his works. Organized by the National Gallery in Washington and the Royal Cabinet of Paintings, Mauritshuis, The Hague, it was seen in Washington in the winter of 1995-96 and in The Hague in the spring of 1996. In Washington, where the viewing days were shortened by a government budget crisis and exceptionally severe winter weather, the show became a "pilgrimage site," attracting 327,551 visitors. The exhibition was small, intimate, and select, with an inward focus offering a vastly different experience from the usual blockbuster. There were no drawings or preparatory works—none exist—and no "school of . . ." pictures. The canvases were simply hung in plain interiors, offering an unprecedented opportunity to compare the masterpieces of this artist, whose works, though limited in subject matter, were vast in emotional impact.

      The blockbuster Postimpressionist show of the year displayed the work of Paul Cézanne. After opening at the Grand Palais in Paris in 1995, it was mounted by the Tate Gallery in London in the spring and later moved to its only U.S. venue, the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

      Blockbuster exhibitions even influenced permanent museum installations. Following the success of the 1995 show at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, "Hidden Treasures Revealed," featuring 74 masterpieces of Impressionist and Postimpressionist paintings from German private collections thought to have been lost in World War II, the museum rehung 57 of the 74 paintings in a separate gallery.

      Blockbusters were not limited to shows displaying paintings. An exhibition devoted to the work of Scottish architect, designer, and painter Charles Rennie Mackintosh attracted thousands of visitors at its first venue in Glasgow. It was on view at the McLellan galleries throughout the summer. Mackintosh's best-known works were in Glasgow, particularly a series of tearooms designed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, replete with Mackintosh chairs, light fittings, and teacups. The show, which featured some 250 objects ranging from architectural drawings and models to furniture, landscape paintings, and watercolours, traveled in late 1996 to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the site of the first retrospective of the artist's work in the U.S. Later showings were scheduled for 1997 at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Other notable blockbuster exhibitions included "Mysteries of Ancient China" and shows devoted to Pablo Picasso, Edgar Degas, and Jean-Baptist-Camille Corot.

      While blockbusters provided advantages for many art institutions and businesses, their popularity became a mixed blessing to some art lovers, who frequently coped with long lines, crowds, and high costs as the price of seeing much-loved art works.

Sandra Millikin is an art historian.

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